Kickstarting, storytelling, early retirement, and more. It's news and such

A hardy happy September! -------- Important note from Minnesota Playlist boss man Alan Berks "For the past two years on MinnesotaPlaylist.com, we have honored the beginning of the new performance season and the excitement over the Iveys, by inviting theater artists of all kinds to discuss what they considered to be the best thing they've experienced in the theater over the last season. Recognizing that all of our aesthetics can be different and that taste is subjective, we have asked people to make their assumptions more explicit--i.e. to write about what they value in the theater and why clearly--and then to describe something in 2011-2012 (a lighting design, a performance, a script, a moment, an entire evening) that measured up to their highest standards. We hope that by writing about our passions, and their causes, explicitly but in a positive way we give more people within the theater community something worthwhile to chew on, and maybe, something more to aspire to. We'll be posting three essays a week on this subject through the month of September The Ivey Awards take place on September 24 at the State Theatre. The Sage Awards (honoring Minnesota dance) take place on October 17 at the Cowles Center. Enjoy." -------- An actor exits the stage mid-career The latest in the on going story of Actor Katie Eifrig’s dealing with growing mental and physical illness the Star Tribune recently ran a story wherein Kate Eifrig announces her retirement from 16 year acting career due to long-term illness. I found this quote from Kate particularly compelling: “You win a McKnight [fellowship] and do a show on the Guthrie stage, and people can't quite believe that you have to get government assistance. You live public and very glamorous lives, and yet you have to go around the house and sell anything you can get your hands on to make the bills. If you worked every week of the year, you would make only about $30,000 a year. How are you going to pay the mortgage or keep your health insurance? Combine those with a medical issue and ... ," her voice trailed off.” It’s sad news for anyone who have worked with Kate or watched her work onstage but based on the article it sounds like she moving forward in a positive and hopeful way. -------- Workshop on Story Slam telling by Katherine Glover – North Star storytellers Do you have a story you’d like to tell in front of an audience? Perhaps you’ve been wanting to participate in a monthly story slam show but can’t quite figure how to write for a specific story slam topic? Writer, performer, and veteran storyteller Katherine Glover will be leading a workshop Monday, September 10th, on techniques for writing to a specific story slam theme. Check out the Northstar Storyteller’s website for more details about this workshop and their upcoming slams. Northstar Storyteller website -------- Thou Loggerheaded Flap-mouthed Canker-blossom I’ve been enjoying the Shakespeare Insult Kit from MIT’s website lately. It’s simple fun and I’ve got a feeling that Minnesota Playlist readers would have no problem adding their own unique elements to these lists. Shakespeare Insult Kit What’s your best Shakespeare insult? -------- HowlRound - the distinction between social and civic practice Social practice versus Civic practice- I Hadn’t really given much thought to these two as different modes of making and doing but Michael Rohd, in response to an essay for Culturebot by Andy Horowitz, nicely lays out how the starting impulse of a project generally informs whether it is a work based in Social Practice or a work based in Civic Practice. Definitely worth reading and it may make you more mindful of how you can and do use your art to take action and make change in your community/world. -------- Kickstarter round up There seem to be more and more theater and dance makers using Kickstarter to fund projects so I’m going to try and share some of those campaigns here in an effort to help us all help each other to make cool stuff. The Twin Cities Horror Fest: They have until October 18th to raise $6,660 “For ten days this fall, seven different groups present an exploration of the genres of horror through a multitude of performance disciplines at the 2012 Twin Cities Horror Festival at the Southern Theater. The festival features local theater, storytelling, dance and music artists presenting their take on the theme of “horror.” The festival will present more than 30 performances over two weekends with a costume dance party and late night horror film showing on Halloween night. Festival shows include Ghost Force: Search for the Truth by Mike Fotis, the psychological horror-comedy Harold by Four Humors Theater, an original horror film score by The Poor Nobodys, the bloody thriller Senseless by RedRawMeat Productions, a one-woman musical The Legend of White Woman Creek by Nick Ryan and Katie Hartman, Bump in the Night by Erin Sheppard featuring dance and storytelling, and the horrifying magic of God Damned Son of a Bitch by Tim Uren. “ Buggin’: They have until September 11th to raise $30,000 “Sam's boring summer is brightened when the beautiful Mary moves in next door, but things get complicated when Sam discovers a terrible secret about her parents. He must fight to prevent their nefarious plans for their daughter in this wry suburban twist on monster movies and teenage romance. We are not making this movie for us, our friends or our families. We are making this movie for YOU! We want it to be big. We want it to impress you and entertain you. We want everybody to see it, in and out of the Twin Cities. But we need your help.” Lovers & Executioners by Theatre Pro Rata: They have until September 12th to raise $750 “Our fall show is set in Restoration France, and if you know anything about that era, you know that they wore some SASSY clothes, full of breeches and corsets. A little extra cash could really lift and separate our costumes from run-of-the-mill apparel. We don't want to hold your toes over a lit brazier but if you could chip in without going bust it would give our production quite the little boosty... Yay!” -------- Do you have something MN Playlist should know about? Send messages to [email protected]. Have a week full of hilarious insults -Levi